In 2007, Wyoming head football coach Joe Glenn guaranteed victory for his Wyoming Cowboys over the Utah Utes. The result was a one-sided beat down for Glenn and his ‘Boys.
Utah did not just win the game 50-0; they rubbed it in the Cowboys’ faces. Trick plays, going for it on fourth down and attempting onside kicks while ahead by more than forty points was what Wyoming got from the Utes on that day.
Flash forward to December 7, 2010. At halftime of the Pepperdine – Utah basketball game, the Utes football team was honored for the trip to the MAACO Bowl Las Vegas. Utah head coach Kyle Wittingham, center Zane Taylor and defensive end Christian Cox encouraged the crowd to support the team and make the trip to Sin City.What followed next was Cox’s statement on the game.
“I promise a victory against Boise State in Las Vegas,” he said. “You better be there.”
As we learned from Wyoming, making any sort of promises or guarantees is a risky thing to do. Statements like those are no just words that dissipate into the atmosphere, they are held onto and remembered.
After Wittingham’s team rolled Wyoming back in 2007, he had these things to say about the Cowboy’s guarantee at the post-game press conference.
“You open your mouth, it’s not like it just goes by the wayside. That’s not how it works,” he said. “You open your mouth, you’re accountable. You are accountable for what you say and what you do. You can’t just say things and then just sweep them away.”
Wittingham went on to say that he doesn’t like it when people make guarantees and that it happens too often in the sporting world. Wittingham’s reaction to Cox’s own guarantee isn’t known but if he is true to his word, he wasn’t happy about it.
Making guarantees is a dangerous way to live. Once a guarantee is made, it’s put up or shut up. You know what, honestly, Dec. 23 is going to be all shut-up.
The Utes are a wounded duck right now. Their quarterback, Jordan Wynn, is out after having a season ending shoulder surgery and Utes’ rushing game has dropped off since November.
Defensively, they’ve been sound all season in defending the run, but since November, they’ve allowed an average of more than 300 yards a game passing. The most notable, 528 yards allowed to San Diego St.
Utah and Boise State are two very different teams who come into the bowl game both after falling short of promising season. Utah lost big to TCU when ranked No. 5, then followed it up with a loss to an average at best Notre Dame team.
BSU is a team still playing with the bitter aftertaste from a loss to Nevada. The Broncos must win this game to have closure on a season that had not lived up to the expectations.
The Broncos have a scary offense protected by a scary defense. Expect both sides of the ball to be all the more charged for Utah when they take the field.
Utah’s Wittingham said that you are accountable for what you say and what you do. It’s only the nature of Bronco football to remind Wittingham and his team of those words said back in 2007 and to hold them accountable for the words said last week.